Life is Strange's official graphic novel follow-up launches next week, and we can now take a peek at how it looks.

Set after the events of Life is Strange's finale, the comic follows the Bay timeline and picks up Max and Chloe's story one year later.

I just finished reading its first issue and it's a great opener - the game's time-travelling weirdness is still causing issues, there are clues to the lingering fates of characters from the Bay ending of the game, and really it's just nice to see Max and Chloe together again - even if just on page.

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Life is Strange 2 is less than two months away and we still know very little about it - but that's all about to change.

On Monday 20th August, the day before Gamescom opens, Square Enix will broadcast a special reveal of the game worldwide. (Expect Eurogamer to cover this live.)

It's handy timing, too, since the first of the upcoming season's five episodes has already been dated for 27th September, on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

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The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit is a standalone narrative experience set in the Life is Strange universe that will launch on PS4, Xbox One and PC on the 26th June, and it's completely free to download - you don't even have to own any of the previous Life is Strange games to unlock access. It was developed by Dontnod at the same time as Life is Strange 2, and will serve as the first introduction of the Life is Strange 2 universe. I was shown a short demo of the game earlier this week by the game's co-directors, Michel Koch and Raoul Barbet. It wasn't at all what I was expecting, but I already can't wait to play.

Dontnod was keen to impress it would be properly revealing Life is Strange 2 "soon," but until then, Captain Spirit takes place in the same timeline, in the same setting and the same universe of Life is Strange 2, and players "will be able to discover a lot of clues and hints in this game as to what the story and setting of Life is Strange 2 will be." There are even some choices in Captain Spirit that will carry over and have consequences in Life is Strange 2. According to Dontnod, "it's a perfect entry point to the games we've been creating, but for fans of the games there will of course be nods to LiS1."

I asked the team why they decided to make an additional game set in the Life is Strange universe. Koch replied, "Because Life is Strange is not a single set of characters or a single town. It's not just Max and Chloe. For three years now, we've created lots of new characters working on Life is Strange 2, and Captain Spirit is one of them. When we started working on Life is Strange 2, started talking about settings and characters, it was quite a huge story. We saw potential in a lot of characters, to find a bit more about their backstory and their side stories."

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The places we visit in games are usually one-off affairs; we shoot or puzzle ourselves through a level and are done with it, always impatient to get to the next stage and exciting new sights. Many games recognise that virtual spaces are more than just levels whose walls funnel us through a series of obstacles. They allow us to spend time exploring or simply being in those spaces. Many RPGs, for example, let us return to locations we visited dozens of hours earlier, perhaps subtly changed by the intervening time or our actions. In the Animal Crossing series, the miniature world changes subtly in our absence, and NPCs will even admonish us for staying away for too long.

Usually a virtual place vanishes into the ether once we put away a game. They may continue to exist in our minds, but they're frozen in time; they have no historical dimension. Some virtual places, however, appear to exist in-between games almost independently.

The Legend of Zelda games have always alluded to the lost worlds of former entries through recurring names, musical themes or visual clues. Breath of the Wild takes this a step further by revealing the ruins of structures familiar from earlier games, like Lon Lon Ranch or the Temple of Time, to the diligent player. Nostalgia is as intricately tied to the passage of time as history, so it's no surprise that the two are near indistinguishable in BotW.
Not unlike those in Zelda, the events taking place in the Dark Souls series are spread out over millennia, far enough apart that the fact these games are set in the same world isn't immediately apparent. Exploring Irithyll of the Boreal Valley in Dark Souls 3 eventually leads to the realisation we are in fact in a strikingly altered Anor Londo, ascending the same steps we're already familiar from the very first game.

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Ever since the original Life is Strange concluded with that choice, fans have debated which of the game's two endings was canon. Now, Life is Strange's upcoming comic series will explore what happened next after one ending in particular.

(If for some reason you're reading this and haven't finished Life is Strange - full spoilers follow.)

Did you choose bae or bay? The game's final decision saw you either save or (incorrectly) sacrifice your best friend/girlfriend Chloe at the expense of your town, Arcadia Bay. Life is Strange developer Dontnod has been careful not to confirm either ending as canon, and its upcoming sequel series is believed to be entirely unrelated.

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Square Enix has announced that Life is Strange: Before the Storm's special bonus episode, titled Farewell, will release on PC, Xbox One, and PS4, on March 6th.

Farewell is an entirely standalone episode (only available to owners of the digital Deluxe Edition of Before the Storm) and marks the return of first series protagonist Max Caulfield. It's the only time that Max is the lead playable character in prequel Before the Storm, with previous episodes having centred around her Season One best friend Chloe Price.

Equally notable is the fact that Farewell sees actor Ashly Burch resume the role of Chloe Price for the first time since the original series. Rhianna DeVries voiced the character in Before the Storm's three main episodes, as Burch was unable to participate due to the now-resolved SAG-AFTRA strike. Hannah Telle, who played Max in the original series, also returns.

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The truth can be hard to look at, is it really something you're ready for? Maybe the lies we tell each other are less horrible than the truths we keep hidden? In addition to these being the main questions Life is Strange: Before the Storm asks of its players, they were also, in a way, the questions those players asked of publisher Square Enix when Before the Storm was first announced. Why spoil the mysteries of the original Life is Strange by laying them bare for all to see? Why not let fans leave the words unsaid and the people never met to their imaginations? Why entrust these beloved secrets to a new development studio? But, despite those legitimate concerns from the Life is Strange community, since the first episode launched in August this year it's been apparent that Before the Storm is not only a worthy follow-up to the original Life is Strange, in some ways it surpasses the groundwork that has already been laid.

Before the Storm paints a more intimate picture of Chloe Price, hellraiser best friend of the original's protagonist Max Caulfield, three years before the events of Life is Strange, in the time Max moved away to Seattle and the two lost contact. Playing as Chloe is a markedly different experience to playing as Max, and given how much you know about Chloe's future at this point, it's remarkable how much freedom it feels like Before the Storm gives you in shaping her outlook and attitude.

Crucially, of course, Chloe does not have Max's mysterious ability to rewind time. This could have been regarded as a step backwards in the complexity of the game, but Before the Storm wisely plays to Chloe's strengths of perception and social manipulation, meaning there are plenty of opportunities to carefully explore your surroundings and approach altercations as a puzzle to be solved. And there's a very marked permanence to the responses you give and the reactions you have to the world around you, raising the stakes in a very real way.

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The third and final episode of Life is Strange: Before the Storm will launch just before Christmas, on 20th December (thanks, IGN).

Titled 'Hell is Empty', the episode will round out the three-part storyline set a couple of years before the original Life is Strange game.

The series' bonus episode which reunites Max and Chloe (and both of their original voice actors) will then arrive early next year.

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Life is Strange's original stars Ashly Burch and Hannah Telle have both been confirmed as returning for the bonus episode of prequel Before the Storm.

Due to hit in early 2018, the episode will see Burch return to the role she originated, following the recent, lengthy voice actor strike. It will also mark the first time Burch and Telle have recorded together since the original Life is Strange.

Before the Storm (whose third and final main episode is expected later this month) has instead starred Rhianna DeVrie as Chloe, in a performance which has fought off all scepticism surrounding the switch. Burch, meanwhile, has remained on the project through the strike as a writer.

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